1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of filming a thin film pattern and a method of manufacturing a device, and to an electro-optical apparatus and an electronic apparatus.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-98274, filed Apr. 1, 2003 and Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-70834, filed Mar. 12, 2004, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
A photolithographic method, for example, is employed in the manufacture of devices having wiring such as electronic circuits and integrated circuits. In this photolithographic method, a photosensitive material known as resist is coated on a substrate on which an electroconductive film has been coated in advance. A circuit pattern is then irradiated thereon and the resist is developed. The electroconductive film is then etched in accordance with the resist pattern so as to form a thin film wiring pattern. This photolithographic method requires large scale equipment such as a vacuum apparatus and also requires complicated processing. Moreover, the material utilization efficiency is approximately several percent and it is necessary to scrap the greater part thereof, so that manufacturing costs are high.
In contrast to this, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,132,248, there is proposed a method of forming a wiring pattern on a substrate using what is known as an inkjet method, which is a droplet discharge method in which a liquid material in droplet form is discharged from a droplet discharge head. In this method, wiring pattern formation ink, which is a functional liquid in which electroconductive fine particles such as metallic fine particles have been dispersed, is coated in a pattern directly on a substrate. Heat processing and laser irradiation are then performed so as to convert this into a thin film electroconductive pattern. According to this method, photolithography becomes unnecessary so that the process is considerably simplified. In addition, this method has the merit that only a small amount of raw materials are used.
However, in the above described conventional technology, the following problem exists.
When the functional liquid is placed on the substrate in order to form the wiring pattern, if there is any residue on the substrate, then, in some cases, the functional liquid may not be placed uniformly on the substrate which becomes a cause of the occurrence of malfunctions such as bulges and wiring breakages
The present invention was conceived in view of the above point, and it is an object thereof to provide a method of forming a thin film pattern and a method of manufacturing a device, as well as an electro-optical apparatus and an electronic apparatus that enable the generation of malfunctions such as wiring breakages and the like to be suppressed.